Maybe by now people will have stopped asking you 'how was your Christmas?' and perhaps even stopped wishing you a 'Happy New Year'?
This year particularly it has struck me that for many people Christmas can be pretty distressing. It's not Christmas that's the problem, it's just that if you have difficult stuff going on in your life, it feels doubly bad at Christmas because everyone is meant to be officially jolly. But maybe you'd just lost someone you loved or maybe you were ill or burgled or over-worked. 'Jolly' might have been the least likely word to describe your mood.
Psychologists tell us that there is a 'blue Monday' in January, a day when we are at our lowest ebb. The credit card bills for Christmas have arrived but the fun is over, spring is still a long way off and it doesn't feel like there is a whole lot left to look forward to.
Paul's letters to the early churches give us a few pithy phrases that I hope might help pull us through this week if January is feeling like a long slog. Here is the first:
'Forgetting what is behind, straining toward what is ahead' Philippians 3:13 [TNIV]
Sometimes it's good to 'forget' and move on. Sometimes there are things we need to quit 'rehearsing over and over' in our mind: regrets, resentments, disappointments.
'Lord, show me today if there are things that I am unhelpfully remembering over and over in a way that leaves me stewing. Help me to stop looking back and start looking forward. Thank you that you have given me a new day today, full of new opportunities. Help me embrace it hopefully. Amen'.
Sheila Bridge
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